Collection: Biography & Memoir

"Disability rights activist Alice Wong brings tough conversations to the forefront of society with this anthology. It sheds light on the experience of life as an individual with disabilities, as told by none other than authors with these life experiences. It's an eye-opening collection that readers will revisit time and time again." --Chicago Tribune

One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent--but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act,

From Harriet McBryde Johnson's account of her debate with Peter Singer over her own personhood to original pieces by authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma; from blog posts, manifestos, and eulogies to Congressional testimonies, and beyond: this anthology gives a glimpse into the rich complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and the past with hope and love.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR - NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A timely, passionate, provocative, blisteringly smart interrogation of how we make and experience art in the age of cancel culture, and of the link between genius and monstrosity. Can we love the work of controversial classic and contemporary artists but dislike the artist?

A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Vulture, Elle, Esquire, Kirkus

"A lively, personal exploration of how one might think about the art of those who do bad things" --Vanity Fair

"Monsters leaves us with Dederer's passionate commitment to the artists whose work most matters to her, and a framework to address these questions about the artists who matter most to us." --The Washington Post

"[Dederer] breaks new ground, making a complex cultural conversation feel brand new." --Ada Calhoun, author of Also a Poet

From the author of the New York Times best seller Poser and the acclaimed memoir Love and Trouble, Monsters is "part memoir, part treatise, and all treat" (The New York Times). This unflinching, deeply personal book expands on Claire Dederer's instantly viral Paris Review essay, "What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?"

Can we love the work of artists such as Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Miles Davis, Polanski, or Picasso? Should we? Dederer explores the audience's relationship with artists from Michael Jackson to Virginia Woolf, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? And if an artist is also a mother, does one identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster in order to create something great. Does genius deserve special dispensation? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss?

Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art.

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"This book is more than a memoir--it also serves as a call to action to create a more equitable healthcare system for patients of color, particularly Black women." --Essence

One of NPR's 11 Books to Look Forward to in 2024

One of Good Morning America's 15 New Books to Read for the New Year

"Legacy is both a compelling memoir and an edifying analysis of the inequities in the way we deliver healthcare in America. Uché Blackstock is a force of nature." --Abraham Verghese, MD, New York Times bestselling author of The Covenant of Water

"[An] extraordinary family story." --Dr. Damon Tweedy, The New York Times Book Review

"This book should be required reading for all medical students." --Gayle King, CBS Mornings

The rousing, captivating story of a Black physician, her career in medicine, and the deep inequities that still exist in the U.S. healthcare system

Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, it never occurred to Uché Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, that they would be anything but physicians. In the 1980s, their mother headed an organization of Black women physicians, and for years the girls watched these fiercely intelligent women in white coats tend to their patients and neighbors, host community health fairs, cure ills, and save lives.

What Dr. Uché Blackstock did not understand as a child--or learn about at Harvard Medical School, where she and her sister had followed in their mother's footsteps, making them the first Black mother-daughter legacies from the school--were the profound and long-standing systemic inequities that mean just 2 percent of all U.S. physicians today are Black women; the racist practices and policies that ensure Black Americans have far worse health outcomes than any other group in the country; and the flawed system that endangers the well-being of communities like theirs. As an ER physician, and later as a professor in academic medicine, Dr. Blackstock became profoundly aware of the systemic barriers that Black patients and physicians continue to face.

Legacy is a journey through the critical intersection of racism and healthcare. At once a searing indictment of our healthcare system, a generational family memoir, and a call to action, Legacy is Dr. Blackstock's odyssey from child to medical student to practicing physician--to finally seizing her own power as a health equity advocate against the backdrop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.

New York Times Bestseller

The long-awaited next book from actress and New York Times bestselling author of The Rural Diaries, Hilarie Burton Morgan. Through memoir essays and magical practices, Grimoire Girl connects us to the enchantment that exists inside us all.

Since childhood, Hilarie Burton Morgan has felt the call to record, keep, and catalogue life in all its strange wonder. It was a whimsical habit, with no clear goal. And then, when she became a mother, the importance of all that collecting snapped into focus.

In an effort to patchwork together an anthology of traditions, curiosity, and magical thinking that she could pass down, Burton Morgan realized she was crafting a grimoire.

In her most intimate book yet, Burton Morgan shares how she's creating an inheritance of mischief and magic that will outlive her. What's more, she shows readers how they too can look at the elements of their lives and collect the pieces into a tangible collection of a lifetime of learning. Because in its purest form, a grimoire was a guide to keep you alive.

Like the grimoires of old, full of life-saving wisdom, these pages record the people, places, ideas and habits that have kept Burton Morgan alive, in her signature voice that is at once honest, witty, and charming. Accompanied by whimsical two-color illustrations by Olivia Faust, the book also includes Simple Spells, which are ways to bring magic into your daily life: create an altar that delights and inspires, practice candle magic and poetry spells, make an oracle deck, or channel your inner kitchen witch with recipes and potions.

So begin creating your own inheritance, take a long look inward and decide...

What wisdom will be written on the pages of your Grimoire?

Dallas, Texas. November 22, 1963. Shots ring out at Dealey Plaza. The president is struck in the head by a rifle bullet. Confusion reigns.
Special Agent Paul Landis is in the follow-up car directly behind JFK's and is at the president's limo as soon as it stops at Parkland Memorial Hospital. He is inside Trauma Room #1, where the president is pronounced dead. He is on Air Force One with the president's casket on the flight back to Washington, DC; an eyewitness to Lyndon Johnson taking the oath of office.
What he saw is indelibly imprinted upon his psyche. He writes and files his report. And yet . . . Agent Landis is never called to testify to the Warren Commission. The one person who could have supplied key answers is never asked questions.
By mid-1964, the nightmares from Dallas remain, and he resigns. It isn't until the fiftieth anniversary that he begins to talk about it, and he reads his first books on the assassination.
Landis learns about the raging conspiracy theories--and realizes where they all go wrong.

With stunning detail, Patty Wetterling shares the untold story of the 27-year search for her son Jacob--and its astonishing conclusion.

On October 22, 1989, in the small town of St. Joseph, Minnesota, eleven-year-old Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped at gunpoint. Twenty-seven years later, on September 2, 2016, Danny Heinrich led authorities to the boy's remains.

What lies between is the riveting story of the search for Jacob Wetterling, told by his mother, Patty. With down-to-earth candor, she details the investigation as it unfolds, discusses her family's struggles, and shows how she maintained her energy and optimism.

For her own survival, Patty chose to focus on hope. She became a speaker, trainer, and national advocate for missing children. Her lobbying work took her to Washington, DC, where in 1994 Congress passed the Jacob Wetterling Act, establishing a national sex offender registry.

In 2013 the Wetterlings were joined on their quest for answers by two unlikely allies: local blogger Joy Baker and plumber Jared Scheierl. Baker convinced Scheierl to come forward and share his story about being kidnapped from a nearby town and sexually assaulted the same year as Jacob. Together, Baker and Scheierl uncovered a string of similar assaults that had never been fully investigated. The combined efforts of this foursome led to the breakthrough that solved the case.

Jacob's kidnapping forever changed the way parents raised their children. Dear Jacob offers not only a behind-the-scenes account of one of America's most notorious crimes but also a historical account of what has been done in the years since Jacob's kidnapping to combat the problem of missing and exploited children.

In this powerful memoir--written with Joy Baker, the local blogger--Patty Wetterling finally tells readers what happened and shows how, in searching for Jacob, she found her purpose.

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER - A modern American classic, this huge and galvanizing biography of Robert Moses reveals not only the saga of one man's incredible accumulation of power but the story of his shaping (and mis-shaping) of twentieth-century New York.

One of the Modern Library's hundred greatest books of the twentieth century, Robert Caro's monumental book makes public what few outsiders knew: that Robert Moses was the single most powerful man of his time in the City and in the State of New York. And in telling the Moses story, Caro both opens up to an unprecedented degree the way in which politics really happens--the way things really get done in America's City Halls and Statehouses--and brings to light a bonanza of vital information about such national figures as Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt (and the genesis of their blood feud), about Fiorello La Guardia, John V. Lindsay and Nelson Rockefeller.

But The Power Broker is first and foremost a brilliant multidimensional portrait of a man--an extraordinary man who, denied power within the normal framework of the democratic process, stepped outside that framework to grasp power sufficient to shape a great city and to hold sway over the very texture of millions of lives. We see how Moses began: the handsome, intellectual young heir to the world of Our Crowd, an idealist. How, rebuffed by the entrenched political establishment, he fought for the power to accomplish his ideals. How he first created a miraculous flowering of parks and parkways, playlands and beaches--and then ultimately brought down on the city the smog-choked aridity of our urban landscape, the endless miles of (never sufficient) highway, the hopeless sprawl of Long Island, the massive failures of public housing, and countless other barriers to humane living. How, inevitably, the accumulation of power became an end in itself.

Moses built an empire and lived like an emperor. He was held in fear--his dossiers could disgorge the dark secret of anyone who opposed him. He was, he claimed, above politics, above deals; and through decade after decade, the newspapers and the public believed. Meanwhile, he was developing his public authorities into a fourth branch of government known as "Triborough"--a government whose records were closed to the public, whose policies and plans were decided not by voters or elected officials but solely by Moses--an immense economic force directing pressure on labor unions, on banks, on all the city's political and economic institutions, and on the press, and on the Church. He doled out millions of dollars' worth of legal fees, insurance commissions, lucrative contracts on the basis of who could best pay him back in the only coin he coveted: power. He dominated the politics and politicians of his time--without ever having been elected to any office. He was, in essence, above our democratic system.

Robert Moses held power in the state for 44 years, through the governorships of Smith, Roosevelt, Lehman, Dewey, Harriman and Rockefeller, and in the city for 34 years, through the mayoralties of La Guardia, O'Dwyer, Impellitteri, Wagner and Lindsay, He personally conceived and carried through public works costing 27 billion dollars--he was undoubtedly America's greatest builder.

This is how he built and dominated New York--before, finally, he was stripped of his reputation (by the press) and his power (by Nelson Rockefeller). But his work, and his will, had been done.

Are you kinder to others than you are to yourself? More than a thousand research studies show the benefits of being a supportive friend to yourself, especially in times of need. This science-based workbook offers a step-by-step approach to breaking free of harsh self-judgments and impossible standards in order to cultivate emotional well-being. In a convenient large-size format, the book is based on the authors' groundbreaking eight-week Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program, which has helped tens of thousands of people worldwide. It is packed with guided meditations (with audio downloads); informal practices to do anytime, anywhere; exercises; and vivid stories of people using the techniques to address relationship stress, weight and body image issues, health concerns, anxiety, and other common problems. The seeds of self-compassion already lie within you--learn how you can uncover this powerful inner resource and transform your life.

See also Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program, by Christopher Germer and Kristin Neff, a thorough overview of conducting MSC (for professionals), and The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion, by Christopher Germer, which delves into mindful self-compassion and shares moving stories of how it can change lives.

Why stick with plain old A, B, C when you can have Amelia (Earhart), Malala, Tina (Turner), Ruth (Bader Ginsburg), all the way to eXtraordinary You--and the Zillion of adventures you will go on?

Instagram superstar Eva Chen, author of Juno Valentine and the Magical Shoes, is back with an alphabet board book depicting feminist icons in A Is for Awesome: 23 Iconic Women Who Changed the World, featuring spirited illustrations by Derek Desierto.

THE INSTANT #1 New York Times BESTSELLER

From the acclaimed, bestselling author of Make Your Bed--a short, inspirational book of advice and leadership lessons that Admiral McRaven collected over his four decades as a Navy SEAL.

The title "Bullfrog" is given to the Navy SEAL who has served the longest on active duty. Admiral McRaven was honored to receive this honor in 2011 when he took charge of the United States Special Operations Command. When McRaven retired in 2014, he had 37 years as a Navy SEAL under his belt, leading men and women at every level of the special operations community. In the ensuing four years, he served as Chancellor to the entire University of Texas System, with its 230,000 students and 100,000 faculty and health care workers.

During those four decades, Admiral McRaven dealt with every conceivable leadership challenge, from commanding combat operations--including the capture of Saddam Hussein, the rescue of Captain Phillips, and the raid for Osama bin Laden.

THE WISDOM OF THE BULLFROG draws on these and countless other experiences from Admiral McRaven's incredible life, including crisis situations, management debates, organizational transitions, and ethical dilemmas, to provide readers with the most important leadership lessons he has learned over the course of his forty years of service. Each chapter provides a Make Your Bed-like parable, rich with insights like those featured in his bestselling memoir, Sea Stories, about the specific leadership traits required to be at the top of your game, including:

• Who Dares, Wins
• Run to the Sound of the Guns
• No Plan Survives First Contact with the Enemy

THE WISDOM OF THE BULLFROG is Admiral McRaven's clear-eyed treatise on the leadership qualities that separate the good from the truly great.

An Oprah Daily Best Book of Fall

A textured, sharply written memoir about coming of age in the fourth decade of one's life and embracing one's truest self in a world that demands gender fit in neat boxes

From the outside, Oliver Radclyffe spent four decades living an immensely privileged, beautifully composed life. As the daughter of two well-to-do British parents and the wife of a handsome, successful man from an equally privileged family, Oliver played the parts expected of him. He checked off every box--marriage, children (four), a white-picket fence surrounding a stately home in Connecticut, and a golden retriever named Biscuit.

But beneath the shiny veneer, Oliver was desperately trying to stay afloat as he struggled to maintain a facade of normalcy--his hair was falling out in clumps, he couldn't eat, and his mood swings often brought him to tears. And then, on an otherwise unremarkable afternoon in September, Oliver Radclyffe woke up and realized the life of a trapped housewife was not one he was ever meant to live. In fact, Oliver had spent his entire life denying the deepest, truest parts of himself. In the wake of this realization, he began the challenging, messy journey toward self-acceptance and living a truer life, knowing he risked the life he'd built to do so.

That journey was fraught, as Oliver navigated leaving a marriage and reintroducing himself to his children. And despite the challenges he faced, Oliver realized there was no way for him to go back to the beautiful lie of his previous life. Not if he wanted to survive.

Frighten the Horses is a trans man's coming of age story, about a housewife who comes out as a lesbian and tentatively, at first, steps into the world of queerness. With growing courage and the support of his newfound community, Oliver is finally able to face the question of his gender identity and become the man he is supposed to be. The story of a flawed, fascinating, gorgeously queer man, Frighten the Horses introduces Oliver Radclyffe as a witty, arresting, unforgettable voice.

I kept trying to run away from me... ...but there was nowhere to go that I wouldn't be there. The more I ran, the more I needed to run. It was hard for me to see where I was headed because I was blinded by fear. The nightmares, the daydreams, and the panicking was going to be my demise.

Dakoda Foxx's debut memoir recounts her life from becoming a child bride at age thirteen, through seemingly endless cycles of abuse and assault, until the moment she decided to be her own savior and take back her life. Incredibly raw and always vulnerable, The Magic in the Nightmare that was Me is a story of survival, perseverance, and a spirit that refused to be broken.

I knew the direction that I wanted to go, and it was just a matter of time before the pieces of me fell into place like a puzzle.

"Did you find your real parents?" How would you react to that question if your grandmother asked you that question from her nursing home bed? That is the question that led me on a quest to find out if I really was adopted or if they were ramblings or confusion of my grandmother who thought I might be someone else. The quest led me on a journey to find out more about my family and what it really means and, in turn, learn more about myself and find who I really am. Then I learned more family secrets, some scandalous and some kind of funny, and that I had family out there that I didn't know about and my search for that missing relative. And while dealing with that search, I had a new secret that we had to guard and keep from family and friends.

This is my/our story, looking back some thirty years ago, back to the 1990s, and how we/I was not searching for answers for one family secret while trying to keep another one hidden and the trials and experiences that we had. Some were humorous, while others were heart-wrenching and painful. Some family memories and histories paralleled each other to some uncanny experiences. Although some parts are true, this is a fictional story, the story of how I wished things had turned out when I was asked the infamous question "Did you find your real parents?" So what would you have done? Read my story, our story, of what I wish I had done and some of what I/we really did.

An honest and vulnerable look at the transgender experience, beyond the physical

James wasn't always "James"-from his initial struggle as a woman attracted to women to the realization that he was born in the wrong body and was truly transgender, he's walked a long, arduous path to find peace with his identity. His personal journey has revealed to him the importance of strong support systems, being true to yourself, and educating those that may not understand.

In Spilling the T, James records a captivating account of the many aspects of pain, heartache, judgment, and uncertainty that transgender individuals like himself experience on a daily basis. Through personal experiences of his transition from female to male, James highlights the aspects of a trans identity that exist outside of "The Surgery." At times comical, sad, frustrating, and euphoric, his story explores the nuanced ways that changing gender affects relationships, social interactions, and one's connection to oneself.

Seeing a need to discuss the transgender experience beyond the focal point of physical transition, James vulnerably crafts a history of his own transition and its impact on those around him. His intimate and moving story, met with contributions by friends and family, will both educate you on this important topic and resonate with those who have shared similar experiences when it comes to identity.

"A Life in Letters" is a poignant and candid memoir by Rodney Rhoda Taylor. That delves into the depths of sexual identity, individuality, love, and resilience. Through heartfelt letters, Taylor chronicles his journey from childhood innocence to adulthood complexities. He explores his battles with societal expectations, his quest for self-acceptance, and the bittersweet path of discovering love in its many forms.

This collection of letters provides an intimate look at the author's experiences with coming out, grappling with depression, and ultimately finding hope and inner peace. Each letter offers readers a chance to reflect on their own lives, making this memoir not just a story. Of one man's life, but a universal testament to the power of vulnerability and the strength of the human spirit.

He is sixteen in 1964. He has friends. He has fun. He smokes unfiltered Luckies. He loses his virginity. He gets his first car and drives with abandon. He is growing up as fast as he can, if not as fast as he wants. A white boy from the suburbs, he goes into the Black city to see the Motown Revue, and to listen to jazz in smokey clubs. Inspired by the non-violent civil rights movement, he embarks on an activist path that in a few years will place him in the militant Weather Underground. He has sex with girls, hiding the unmentionable fact that he is gay. His father is checked out while his mother is dying--another thing that may not be discussed. He pretends he doesn't care, projecting himself as a worldly proto-adult, but he is a scared kid. Performance Anxiety is a vivid portrayal of one boy's rocky youth--and of America on the brink of the cultural tumult known as "the sixties." With rare honesty and humble self-forgiveness Jonathan Lerner recalls the exuberance and pain of growing up in a time and place, and family, that seemed whole but were cracking apart.